"What do you mean you can't delay?" she asked in an irritated tone. Her feet were now warm. She retracted them from Brantley and curled them beneath her knees.

Daryn took a deep breath. "Though I think it would be best if Brantley says it all, I will provide only enough information for you to start."

​​

"Then tell me!" Bianca almost shouted. She hated the suspense. She hated the fact that she was getting attracted to Brantley. He was her mate, and she knew that, but she was still angry with so many things, and the foremost was why did he leave her after seeing her for the first time.

Daryn looked at Brantley. "Brantley is the king of Aztec."

Bianca's eyes became wide. "What?" She covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes became wide. She had heard about the mysterious king of Aztec in Ulfric from other werewolf girls on how handsome he was and that he had rarely come to Ulfric. The last he came was at her parents wedding. She stared at him as her mind froze. So this man was the king of Aztec? And he was her mate? "Oh. My. God!"

"I know you have many questions, Bia, but it would be better if Brantley answers them."

"But Daddy—"

Daryn took her hands in his large ones. "Trust me darling. You would understand better."

Bianca looked at her mother. "I want to talk to you mom!" She needed her mother at the moment. She was going through so many emotions that she needed to talk to her.

Dawn came to her and hugged her. "I too want to talk it out with you baby, but first you should let Brantley speak. I know that it is too much for you, but he is really running out of time and—" Dawn breathed out. "And I won't stop him even for a second now." She cupped her daughter's face and kissed her cheek. "Once you have listened to him, you can curse me as much as you like." Dawn looked at Brantley and smiled. "Take him to your room Bia. I don't want servants to hear your conversation over here."

Brantley and Bianca were settled in her room. She was sitting on her bed, and he was sitting on the chair beside the bed.

"You have a beautiful room," he said looking at the gauzy pink curtains that fell around her bed. The piano on the left corner made his lips curl up.

"And my patience is thinning!" she blew a strand of hair out of her face.

He lowered his head. "I don't know where to start from. It's too complicated, but I will try to make things simple."

"Okay, I am listening," she said. Even though she was extremely angry with him, she couldn't help herself staring at his face. King of Aztec?

"My kingdom was once a beautiful place blessed by the deity of fertility, love and nature. She presented my ancestors with the Stone of Solaris. However, this ruby was stolen from my kingdom some two thousand years back. I had launched a hunt to find it, but we couldn't find it." He got up and went to the window to look at the river. "Without the stone, my kingdom fell into perpetual gloom. No births took place, nature didn't reproduce, and eventually everything just went down. People in my kingdom are so old and we don't have any young blood. We are immortals, but we do die in wars and other kinds of attacks or diseases." He exhaled heavily as if under a lot of tension. "My kingdom is now like a desert, and the population is dwindling. Nature has unbalanced itself."

"How does that bring me in the equation?"

He walked back to the chair and sat down. "When I had lost all hope, a prophecy was told by the High Priest of our temple that my mate would be born to a neotide, and that she would bring back life to Aztec, that she would be the harbinger of nature."

Bianca coiled with tension. Fear skittered down her spine like a spider. "Mom?"

"Yes…" he said looking at her intently. He continued, "I don't know what ways nature has, but I wasn't expecting it at all. In fact I had given up looking for my mate over so many years because the prophecy was so profound." He raked his hands in his hair. "I could never imagine that I would even find Dawn, until after she married Daryn. I kept my eye on Dawn after that. And my rotten luck would have it, it was already foretold that she wouldn't have babies with a pureblooded werewolf." He rubbed his hands over his chest as if feeling the burden of something. "So I took my chances and sent her on a mission to find the Stone of Solaris, and she did. Through a series of incidents, Dawn and Daryn found it and they returned the stone back to me." He swallowed his saliva when he remembered it all.

Bianca got up from her bed and walked to the window. Cool breeze fluttered her hair gently. There was so much information that she needed the time to process. She rubbed her arms and said, "You still haven't answered my question."

Suddenly she felt his presence behind her. He draped a sheet on her shoulders and stood beside her.

"Thank you," she said softly.

"Now I have the Stone of Solaris and I have installed it in the temple of Chimala, but my kingdom still needs its queen. And it's the queen who can restore the balance."

She turned her head over her shoulder and asked, "Why? The stone is already returned to you. Why isn't your kingdom restored?"

He looked at her and said, "Because according to the prophecy, it is my wife who can restore the balance. The ruby will show its true magic only with you."

"I don't understand," Bianca said, totally confused.

Brantley walked back to the chair and sat down. He drew his fingers through his hair again. "Ruby's powers were completely absorbed by you when I brought it over here when you were born."

Bianca whipped her head towards him. "You came to meet me when I was born?"

"Yes," he said softly.

Bianca's face fell. This man had been there for so long, waiting for her… Words left her. She went and sat on the bed right opposite him.

"It was just a token that you belonged to me," he breathed. He was getting choked with emotions, so he closed his eyes. "It was customary."

She stared at him as every cell in her body was rapt with attention and unknown feelings in her heart poured.

"At first when the stone was exposed to Dawn, she absorbed its magic and then whatever was left, you absorbed it." He looked at her expectantly.

Suddenly she suspected his purpose of visit. "So you have come to take me? To return what me and mom took from you?"

He bit his lip and then rasped, "Not give back to me, but my kingdom needs it. You are the only hope left for my dying race. You are the only hope left for—" he stopped before saying 'me', because he wasn't sure that she would believe him.

To say that she was shocked was an understatement. No words formed in her brain to express herself. He needed her more for his kingdom than for himself? And she didn't know how she could help. "Do you even like me?" she asked as pain stabbed her heart.

"'Like' is an insult to what I feel for you…"